Food production: Ogun, Germany to explore partnership

The Ogun State Government has revealed plans to partner with Germany in the area of food production.

This is as the Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, called for the exploration of available partnership options between Germany and Ogun State.

Abiodun said Ogun State was looking at ways of contributing to the food security agenda of President Bola Tinubu.

Abiodun stated this on Thursday when he received the Consul General, German Embassy, Weert Borner, in his Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta office.

The governor said his administration was on the lookout for partners in the area of mechanised farming, adding that the state government would be supporting small farmers across the state.

“I will like to explore with you and have partnership that we can find with the German government in supporting us in our new resolve to up the ante in food production.

“Our new policy now is to partner anyone who wants to come and farm in Ogun State by providing the land, by ensuring that the lands are accessible, by also clearing the land.

“To that extent, we are looking for partners in the area of mechanised farming and providing tractors and other forms of merchanised farming techniques that will help us in achieving our plan.

“In the last few days, we’ve been deliberating on how to ensure that we contribute our quota to the food security agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“We believe that we can easily be the bread basket of this nation and we are devising new strategies to achieve the objective in the shortest time.

“We have an ambitious plan of ensuring that in the next 12 months, this becomes easily visible across the state. We welcome partners that will assist us in that part,” he said

Earlier in his remarks, the German Consul General said the German government was looking at increasing its ties with the state in the agricultural sector and energy transition.

“The two major areas we want to focus in increasing cooperation between Ogun State and Germany is the agricultural sector; meaning better production, better methods of agriculture, plus making agriculture more sustainable and environment friendly and of cause supporting Ogun State in food security for all of Nigeria.

“The second area is the energy transition to improve the build up of renewable energy and the grid development in Nigeria,” he said.